In an effort to restart the tourism industry in Penang, a series of roundtable sessions with different segments of the tourism industry will take place.

This is following the completion of the first Penang Tourism Roundtable Discussion: “Penang Tourism, The Next Norm” held previously on April 25.

Penang State Exco for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage, Yeoh Soon Hin said the individual segments involving airlines, hoteliers, tourism attractions and others are taking place this month and next month to engage and gather relevant inputs from respective segments affected by Covid-19.

“The state will be putting emphasis on growing and strengthening domestic tourism for the coming one year and it is key to have a close cooperation with stakeholders and tourism players to ensure that all is aligned in the same direction.  

“The meeting is a platform for feedback in regard to the “next normal” that Penang tourism would be, from the sanitisation and hygiene protocols to the primarily smaller groups of travellers that would be the new normal and tourism trends.

“This is the time that we need to ensure that we are prepared accordingly in order to ensure that we are at a position to re-capture maximum growth when tourism rebuilds. 

“To achieve this, we need to ensure that Penang is committed towards this direction as a whole with everyone involved,” said.

In the meantime, he reminded business operators and public to be vigilant in taking preventive measures when they resume business activities to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

“With the re-opening of certain businesses allowed under the CMCO, road traffic has increased significantly and public are urged not to let their guard down in taking prevention measures including checking body temperatures, control crowd numbers, social distancing, wearing face masks, washing hands and others to prevent the virus from spreading again.

“At the same time, please reduce travelling outdoor unnecessarily and stay home, when possible, as the battle against Covid-19 is still ongoing,” he said adding that the Conditional Movement Control Order is still enforced.

“The Penang Local Government has also imposed guidelines including the operational business hours and people need to check the guidelines through the official website,”  Yeoh said in a statement.